Hong Kong is dubbed "Asia's world city", and would also love to be the tech capital of the most dynamic and populous region of the world, halfway between the North Asia giant (China, South Korea, Japan) and the fast-growing South-East Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam...).

With 8m inhabitants, a British past and a recent come-back into China, can Hong Kong be the hub it is already financially? To be true, there's a world between Hong Kong and China, and it makes of the city-island-state-special administrative area quite an isolated dot.

Of course, the manufacture and financial history and expertise of the city can be seen quite vividly in its startup scene, where "fintech" is quite advanced.

In this review, you will see how Hong Kong has turned into an innovation hub mostly thanks to a small community of determined entrepreneurs, its best practices as an ecosystem, and its strengths and weaknesses as well.

Read more about us as we roam the world to explore the emerging markets startups scenes, from Iran to Chile, from China to Nigeria.

2.
Innovation has no place in a global world, it’s everywhere
Innovation ecosystems can learn from one another
Local context matters and should be a source for innovators
This is why…
We’re on a world tour of innovation ecosystems!
We believe…

3.
History & context of
innovation in Hong Kong
Turning manufacturers into entrepreneurs

4.
A brief history of Hong Kong innovation ecosystem
• 1997: After 155 years, Great-Britain retrocedes Hong Kong to
China, which keeps it as a “Special Administrative Region”
• 2001: the dotcom burst washes away the startup scene for the next
6-7 years, the city is still entrepreneurial, but not innovative as such

5.
A brief history of Hong Kong innovation ecosystem
• 2009: HK’s first coworking space, Boot HK, is setup, after several events like
Startup Saturday gathered an embryo of a community
• 2011: Weekly events at Boot HK keeps the community growing, and new
coworking spaces (The Hive, Cocoon) open, as well as the first Hackerspace
(Dim Sum Lab), more focused on hardware

6.
A brief history of Hong Kong innovation ecosystem
• 2011-2012: The first startups re-emerge from this community-driven environment, with
Makibox (crowdfunding & hardware), 8securities (Fintech) which raised 8M$
• 2013-2014: The government kicks in, open incubators (Science Park, Cyberport)
• 2014: The historical players of the ecosystem launch StartupHK, to sustain and manages
to attract attention from InvestHK, a gov agency who supports SMEs and int’l expansion

15.
Pros and cons of Hong Kong
innovation ecosystem
• High expertise in finance and bored bankers
make good new startupers in fintech + access
to bankers capital for insiders
• Cheap manufacturing prices both in HK and
nearby China
• Easiness of starting a business and getting a
visa, with no obligation to have HK residents
in capital or employees
• Community-driven ecosystem with true
dedication and hunger for success
• Entrepreneurial mindset
• Uncensored Internet, not so common in Asia,
and not the case in China
• Small market of 8M inhabitants, not really
connected to China (culturally, economically)
• No culture of risk from banks, which will not
support startups until 2 years of revenue can be
shown
• Lack of talent in specific areas, in particular
design and UX/UI
• English is an official language but not always
understood everywhere
• Not quite a gateway to China which has strong
rules on startup (capital requirement, licences…)
• 0.73% only of GDP dedicated to R&D
• Real estate prices 30% > New York
PROS CONS

16.
Top connectors in Hong Kong
WilliamLiang (Profile), Adjunct Professor atUHK and
co-founder of Boot HK, HK’s first coworking spae.
Now heading Dim Sum Lab, HK’s first hackerspace
Casey Lau (About), co-founder of BootHK, catalyst at
IBM for Asia-Pacific and founder of StartupHK, the
new-born community movement of the startup
scene
Jonathan Buford (Twitter), co-founder of BootHK and
now founder/CEO of Makibox, a startup creating
new ways of manufacturing items
Cédric Delzenne (Twitter), ex-founder of Shop Des
Créateurs (marketplace for designers), now heading
the HK chapter of the Founders Institute

17.
Top connectors in Hong Kong
César Harada (Website), founder of Protei,
which makes a DIY boat with sensors to
monitor environment data, ex-MIT, TED fellow
Mikaal Abdulla (AngelList), founder and CEO of
8securities, one of the top fintech startups in
HK, previously worked for E*TRADE
Tony Vet (FB), Community Curator at The Good
Lab 好單位 and Co-Founder at TEDtoChina
Gregory So (Profile) Honk Kong Secretary of
Commerce and key player of Start Me Up, the
tech focused program of Invest HK

18.
Best practices of
HK innovation ecosystem
• A quarterly “Introduction to the HK startup ecosystem” talk, by Casey Lau,
founder of StartupHK, to get in touch with newcomers and update the
available resources for the community

19.
Best practices of
HK innovation ecosystem
• StartupHK, a coffee shop and new umbrella name for the local scene (5000
members), which runs StartbaseHK, a crowdsourced directory plugged to
Crunchbase in the US (300 companies registered)

20.
Best practices of
HK innovation ecosystem
• A reality show on startups on TVB, the biggest local channel, in Cantonese,
to educate local youth on entrepreneurship (“I am boss”)

21.
What’s next for Hong Kong?
“Coopete” with neighboring Shenzhen: take advantage of low
costs of China with skills and financing of HK
Help Asian entrepreneurs bootstrap and relocate in HK, which
has huge benefits compared to other Asian countries (easier visa
than Singapore, easier setup of business than surrounding
countries, better and freer internet than in China, etc)
Open HKTech “embassies” in like-minded places
(Dubai, Singapore, London…) with learning tours to help local
startups scale in similar markets